The Academy of Social Sciences is the national academy of academics, practitioners and learned societies in the social sciences. The Academy’s Fellowship comprises 1,700 leading social scientists from academia, the public, private and third sectors. Fellows’ expertise covers the breadth of the social sciences, and their practice and research helps to understand and address some of the major challenges facing communities, society, places and economies.
John is a leading expert in comparative media analysis and joined Loughborough University in 2000. He served as Director of the Centre for Research in Communication and Culture from 2016 to 2019. Between 2019-2021, he was Head of Department and shortly after he was elected President of the European Communication Research and Education Association (ECREA) from 2021 until 2024. In 2020-21 he served as a sub-panel member for the D34 sub-panel of the UK’s Research Excellence Framework and currently serves as Deputy Chair of the REF 2029 D34 sub-panel. In 2022 he was elected as a Member of the Academia Europaea.
More recently, John was appointed the University’s Associate Pro Vice-Chancellor for Climate Change and Net Zero, one of Loughborough’s strategic themes. In this role, he is responsible for drawing together activities within the University that advance the work linked to this theme and support our progress towards our net zero targets.
Speaking about the Fellowship, John said: “I am delighted that my work has been recognised by the Academy for Social Sciences. The social sciences play a crucial role in addressing global challenges, such as climate change, and I look forward to championing the importance of social sciences as part of the Fellowship of the Academy.”
President of the Academy, Will Hutton FAcSS, commented: “It’s a pleasure to welcome these 63 leading social scientists to the Academy’s Fellowship. Their research and practical applications have made substantial contributions to social science and wider society in a range of areas from international trade policy and inclusive planning systems through to innovative entrepreneurship and governing digital technologies. We look forward to working with them to promote further the vital role the social sciences play in all areas of our lives.”